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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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'  .S6  1832 

Smith,  Eli,  1801-1857. 
Trials  of  missionaries 


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TRIALS    OF   MISSIONARIES. 

APR  28  1913 


AN^- 


ADDRE88 


DELIVERED  IN  PARK-STREET  CHURCH,  BOSTON, 

ON   THE 

EVENING   OF    OCTOBER  24,  1832, 

TO    THE 

REV.    ELIAS    RIGGS,    REV.    WILLIAM    M.   THOMSON, 
AND   DOCT.   ASA    DODGE, 

ABOUT   TO   EMBARK    AS 

MISSIONARIES   TO   THE    MEDITERRANEAN. 


BY   THE   REV.   ELI    SMITH, 

A   MEMBER    OF    THE    MISSION. 


BOSTON: 

PRINTED    BY    CROCKER    AND    BREWSTER, 

47;  Washington-Street. 
1832. 


ADDRESS 


Dear  Brethren, 

This  occasion  brings  fresh  to  remembrance  my  own 
emotions,  when  called  more  than  six  years  ago,  as  you 
are  now,  to  leave  my  friends  and  country.  My  first  im- 
pressions and  anxieties,  too,  at  entering  successively  the 
scenes  to  which  you  are  about  to  go,  all  come  back  re- 
newed, 

I  am  reminded  of  the  misgiving-of-heart  that  assailed 
me,  as  the  ship  glided  from  the  harbor,  and  boldly  plunged 
into  the  Atlantic;  seeming,  while  she  unfeelingly  tore  me 
from  home,  presumptuously  to  defy  the  winds  and  waves 
to  match  their  mighty  power  with  human  skill.  I  recol- 
lect my  strange  reluctance  to  credit  my  senses,  when,  at 
Malta,  cowled  monks,  grated  nunneries,  images  of  saints 
at  the  corners  of  the  streets  and  carried  in  pompous  pro- 
cession, priests  in  their  confessional-boxes  shriving  the 
credulous  penitent  who  knelt  to  whisper  in  their  ear  his 
confession,  advertisements  of  indulgences  at  the  doors  of 
the  churches,  and  the  idolatrous  worshiping  of  the  host 
while  carried  through  the  streets  as  a  viaticum  to  the 
dying;  first  changed  all  my  dreams  of  the  dark  ages  into 


present  realities,  and  showed  me  that  I  had  got  to  fight 
over  again,  with  the  absurdities  of  popery,  the  battles  of 
the  Reformation.  The  involuntary  dread,  too,  with  which 
I  shrunk  fi-om  my  first  contact  with  the  antichristian 
haughtiness  of  the  turbaned  Turk,  as  I  landed  in  Egypt, 
a  single-handed  missionary,  aiming  to  undermine  the  faith 
he  adores,  is  distinctly  recalled.  And  the  near  view  of 
death  presented  by  the  plague,  as  I  was  first  surrounded 
by  it,  and  shut  myself  up  from  stranger  and  friend,  fearing 
contagion  in  every  touch,  comes  up  afi-esh. 

But  what  were  first  impressions  once,  have  lost  their 
novelty;  and  many  of  the  anxieties  they  occasioned,  have 
been  entirely  removed,  or  essentially  modified  by  expe- 
rience. Four  times  has  Providence  mercifully  preserved 
me  from  the  plague,  while  it  was  hurrying  away  its  victims 
around;  ^a  thousand  have  fallen  at  my  side  and  ten  thou- 
sand at  my  right  hand'  from  the  cholera,  and  it  has  not 
been  suffered  to  touch  me;  and  when  nigh  unto  death  in 
a  Persian  stable,  have  friends  been  raised  up  to  nurse  and 
heal  me.  I  have  seen  the  wrath  of  the  Turk  restrained, 
when  provoked  by  the  destruction  of  his  navy,  and  the 
approach  of  a  conquering  enemy  to  his  capital;  no  serious 
molestation  has  been  offered  me  while  travelling  thousands 
of  miles  in  his  territories;  and  even  the  predatory  hand  of 
the  barbarous  Kurd  has  not  touched  me.  By  observation 
and  repeated  argument,  the  open  abominations  and  subtle 
wiles  of  papacy  have  become  familiar.  And  after  being 
preserved  through  a  dozen  voyages,  I  am  mercifully  re- 
turned to  my  country  and  friends. 

I  can  never  revisit  those  scenes,  with  the  feelings  I  had 
at  first  entering  them.  Instead  of  imagined  and  imagin- 
ary trials,  I  now  know,  to  a  considerable  extent,  what  to 
expect.     Permit  me,  brethren,  so  far  as  I  am  able,  to 


transfer  from  my  own  mind  to  yours,  some  of  the  results 
of  my  experience. 

The  trials  in  regard  to  the  necessaries  of  life,  of  which 
friends  at  home  often  think  and  speak  most,  you  will  prob- 
ably regard  least  of  all.  Called,  you  often  will  be,  espe- 
cially in  travelling,  to  eat,  and  clothe,  and  lodge  badly; 
but  still  greater  mental  and  moral  privations  will  m^ake 
you  regard  as  trifles  such  as  are  m.erely  bodily.  The 
sight,  too,  of  the  numerous  poor  around  you,  eating  their 
scanty  meals  of  bread  and  oil,  or  filling  their  bellies  with 
the  pods  of  the  kharoob  tree,  perhaps  the  very  husks  the 
prodigal  son  grudged  the  swine,  and  giving,  by  contrast, 
an  appearance  of  comfort  to  every  form  of  poverty  you 
had  seen  before,  will  make  you  grateful,  that,  at  the 
worst,  you  are  enabled  to  fare  better  than  they,  and  dis- 
pose you  to  forget  your  own  wants  in  compassion  for  those 
whom  you  go  to  benefit.  And  you  will  remem.ber  your 
great  Lord  and  Master,  who,  in  his  errand  of  mercy  to 
our  world,  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head,  and  be  ashamed 
to  complain.  Above  all  men,  the  missionary  is  called  to 
apply  to  himself  our  Savior's  injunction  to  his  disciples, 
*'Take  no  thought  for  your  life,  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what 
ye  shall  drink,  nor  yet  for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put 
on:' 

Among  the  trials  which  you  will  feel  to  be  serious,  I 
would  mention,  first,  the  trial,  or  perhaps  I  should  say 
disappointment,  of  your  classical  and  sacred  associations. 
It  is  delightful  to  read  the  journals,  or  to  listen  to  the  nar- 
ratives, of  one  who  has  surveyed  the  mountains  and  plains 
of  Greece  from  the  castle  of  Corinth,  has  examined  the 
perfection  of  ancient  art  in  the  Parthenon  at  Athens,  has 
become  familiar  wdth  the  glory  of  Lebanon  and  the  ex- 
cellency of  Carmel  and  Sharon,  and  has  stood  upon 
*1 


6 

mount  Olivet,  or  at  the  foot  of  mount  Ararat.  It  is  also 
interesting  to  anticipate  going  in  person  to  such  celebrated 
spots.  And  still  more  satisfactory  is  the  reflection  of  hav- 
ing actually  visited  them.  But  the  experience  of  really 
living  and  travelling  there,  is  not,  to  the  missionary,  a  cup 
of  such  unmixed  gratification. — I  say,  to  the  missionary , 
because,  in  this  and  the  other  trials  I  shall  mention,  others 
can  but  very  imperfectly  sympathize  with  him.  The 
traveller  goes  to  look  with  the  eye  of  an  antiquarian  or 
of  a  poet  upon  the  relics  of  ancient  art  and  power;  or 
with  that  of  a  philosopher  and  a  politician  upon  present 
exhibitions  of  character  and  of  government.  And  if  he 
lodges  among  poverty  and  filth  in  the  ruins  of  Thebes  or 
Baalbek;  or  is  abused,  hindered,  and  crossed  in  his  pur- 
poses, by  venial  Turkish  governors,  and  lying,  faithless 
guides  and  muleteers;  he  is,  indeed,  discommoded,  and 
vexed  to  the  quick;  but  still  the  one  serves  materially,  by 
way  of  contrast,  to  elevate  his  conceptions  of  the  grand- 
eur of  ancient  times,  and  the  other  teaches  him  constant- 
ly new  and  valuable  lessons  of  the  very  information  he  is 
travelling  to  acquire.  And  he  has  neither  the  expectation 
of  a  continued  residence  among  such  people,  nor  any 
fixed  desire  for  their  happiness,  to  make  their  degradation 
weigh  permanently  upon  his  spirits. — Not  so  with  you,  as 
missionaries.  You  go  not  to  study  ancient  Greece  and 
Palestine,  nor  present  workings  of  human  nature;  any 
farther  than  you  will  ever  have  an  occasional  regard  to 
the  one  for  the  illustration  of  Scripture,  and  will  find  an 
understanding  of  the  other  an  essential  help  to  your  mis- 
sionary success.  You  go  to  reform  and  save  the  degen- 
erate and  perishing  people  who  now  dwell  there;  and  your 
tour  is  for  life.  If  this  object  be  foremost,  as  it  ought  to 
be,  in  your  minds  and  hearts,   and  you  are  led,  when 


lodging  in  a  hut,  the  companion  of  filth  and  vermin,  or 
daily  cheated  and  belied  by  servants  and  false  friends, 
sometimes  to  reflect  upon  the  discouragements  and  dis- 
consolateness  of  your  work;  what  comfort,  think  you, 
will  come  from  the  idea,  that  you  are  on  the  spot  where 
Socrates  argued,  or  Paul  preached?  The  very  light,  that 
will  break  in  through  such  a  reflection,  will  only  make 
you  see  more  clearly  the  foul  features  of  the  moral  degra- 
dation around  you,  and  feel  more  sensibly  the  extent  of 
the  labor  you  propose  to  accomplish.  In  a  word,  the 
misery  of  present  scenes  will  diminish,  and  perhaps  ulti- 
mately destroy  the  charms  of  classical  and  sacred  associa- 
tions. And,  if  your  experience  be  like  mine,  the  nearer 
you  approach  to  Jerusalem,  the  less  will  be  your  desire  to 
visit  it;  from  the  expectation  of  more  pain  fi-om  views  of 
its  present  wickedness,  than  of  pleasure  from  reflections 
upon  its  ancient  glory. 

Second:  Your  constitutions  will  be  tried.  Your  fear 
of  sudden  death  from  the  plague,  will  indeed  be  dimin- 
ished, when  you  find  that  a  perfect  quarantine,  or  avoid- 
ing the  touch  of  whatever  has  the  contagion,  will  give  you 
security  in  the  midst  of  it.  And  you  will  find  few  places 
very  subject  to  serious  endemical  diseases.  The  climate 
of  the  Mediterranean  is  not  a  bad  one  for  that  latitude. 
But  it  is  still  a  southern  climate.  Three  or  four  months 
of  continued  heat,  with  hardly  a  change  of  temperature 
which  we  should  notice  at  home,  and  five  or  six  months 
of  drought,  uninterrupted  by  a  single  shower,  necessarily 
relax  a  constitution  formed  amid  the  invigorating  changes 
and  refreshing  showers  of  our  northern  latitude.  The 
nerves  are  then  laid  open  to  the  withering  action  of  the 
scirocco  wind,  which  you  will  encounter  every  where,  and 
they  become  a  thermometer,  exquisitely  sensitive  to  every 


varying  breeze.  More  and  more  sensitive  they  become, 
too,  as  the  process  of  enervation  proceeds,  to  all  the  other 
trials  of  your  missionary  life.  The  spiritual  blindness  and 
obstinacy  of  those  whom  you  would  enlighten  and  convert, 
affects  them.  The  universal  falsehood  of  those  with  whom 
you. deal,  tries  them.  All  the  little  inconveniences  of  food 
and  lodging,  too,  then  come  to  be  felt,  and  prey  upon 
them.  The  springs  of  animal  life  are  gradually  worn 
out,  and  the  unnerved  constitution  falls  an  easy  prey  to 
disease,  or  sinks  under  premature  old  age.  I  speak  not 
inconsiderately.  It  is  my  settled  conviction  that  enfeebled 
health  and  shortened  life  are  among  the  sacrifices  neces- 
sary to  the  work  of  missions.  They  are  an  integral  part 
of  the  expense  to  be  reckoned  in  counting  the  cost  of  the 
conversion  of  the  world.  But,  who  that  has  a  just  sense 
of  the  value  of  souls  and  of  the  vanity  of  life,  will  shrink 
from  them?  Because  the  work  cannot  be  done  without 
them,  shall  it  be  left  undone,  the  world  be  suffered  to  con- 
tinue in  ruin,  and  the  Savior's  command  remain  un- 
obeyed? 

Third:  Your  courage  will  be  tried.  Not,  indeed,  the 
courage  requisite  to  face  an  enemy  in  combat,  or  death 
on  the  scaffold.  The  Turks  are  so  kept  in  check  by  fear 
of  the  power  and  vengeance  of  Christian  nations,  that, 
where  you  go,  your  life  will  rarely,  if  ever,  be  endangered 
by  their  wrath.  Your  American  citizenship  will  avail 
you  as  much  as  Paul's  citizenship  of  Rome  did  him.  It 
is  your  moral  courage  that  will  be  tested.  To  preach  the 
gospel  at  home,  whether  to  congregations  or  to  individuals, 
requires  indeed  a  resolution  that  shall  break  through  dif- 
fidence; but  no  great  degree  of  positive  courage,  for  the 
sentiments  of  the  community  are  with  you.  But  transfer 
yourself  to  a  land  of  Mohammedans  and  papists,  by  one 


of  whom  your  religion  is  despised,  and  by  the  other  is 
hated;  a  land,  too,  where  delicate  sensibilities  are  not 
regarded,  but  each  one,  tumbled  and  jostled  by  the  rough 
handling  of  the  heartless  and  the  passionate  from  earliest 
youth,  becomes  as  little  sensitive  to  the  treatment  of 
another  as  the  mule  is  to  the  lash  of  his  master,  and  none 
is  expected  to  feel  short  of  a  sound  blow:  stand  up  there 
to  proclaim  all  out  of  the  way,  and  to  exhort  them  to 
renounce  their  hereditary  veneration  for  the  Koran  and 
Councils,  and  all  the  thousand  dogmas  and  ceremonies 
that  hinge  upon  them;  and  receive  the  rough  treatment 
to  which  they  are  accustomed,  made  rougher  in  propor- 
tion as  you  cross  the  current  of  public  opinion  and  prac- 
tice. Then  will  your  -moral  courage  be  tried;  and  if  it 
stand  not  the  test,  you  will  shrink  back  within  yourself, 
and  your  influence  as  a  missionary  will  be  a  cypher. 

Fourth:  Your  temper  ivill  he  tried.  In  your  dealings 
with  men,  you  will  find  them  swayed  by  a  selfishness  so 
gross,  as  to  overstep  the  bounds  of  honesty  and  of  honor, 
within  which  it  is  commonly  restrained  among  us.  In  its 
workings,  man  overreaches  man  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
and  each,  in  managing  his  individual  interests,  acquires, 
in  his  little  sphere,  a  diplomatic  adroitness  at  intrigue, 
double-dealing,  and  deceit,  not  very  unlike  his,  who  has 
grown  grey  in  the  cabinet,  managing  the  balance  of  power 
between  neio-hborinor  nations.  Your  servant  will  hire 
shop-keepers  and  market-men  to  abet  him  in  overcharging 
in  his  purchases,  by  dividing  with  them  his  dishonest 
gain;  and  then  seek  by  cringing  and  falsehood  to  put 
your  suspicions  to  rest.  Your  entertainer  in  travelling 
will  serve  you  up  more  flattering  speeches  than  nutricious 
dishes;  and  then  charge  you  in  proportion  to  the  former, 
rather  than  the  latter.     So  crookedly,  in  fact,  are  their 


10 

/minds  formed,  that  a  falsehood  will  often  come  out  as  the 
I  readiest  answer  to  a  simple  inquiry,  when  not  the  shadow 
of  a  motive  appears  for  concealing  the  truth.  Their  own 
method  of  settling  their  matters  is,  to  meet  cheating  with 
cheating  and  lie  with  lie;  and  then,  by  furious  altercation 
and  wrangling,  work  themselves  to  a  mutual  adjustment. 
Like  as  the  inequalities  of  two  flints  are  knocked  off  by 
collision;  and  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  the  more 
fire  is  elicited  in  the  process,  the  more  perfect,  generally 
is  the  agreement  in  the  end.  Your  way  will  be,  to  deter- 
mine within  yourself  what  is  right,  and  then  do  it,  regard- 
less alike  of  their  arguments,  their  smiles,  and  their 
threats.  But  who  can  steer  this  straight  course  through 
such  vortices  of  falsehood  and  passion;  and  not  have  his 
temper  warped,  and  be  provoked  to  lift  his  voice  and  give 
utterance  to  his  indignation?  The  occasions  will  occur 
daily,  and  if  you  yield  to  them,  a  touchy,  impatient,  dic- 
tatorial spirit,  the  reverse  of  evangelical  meekness,  will 
be  the  inevitable  consequence.  Such  experience  long 
continued  will  tend  to  cloud  you  in  universal  suspicion; 
and  you  will  look  upon  all  the  world  through  the  dis- 
torting medium  of  a  sour  misanthropy.  I  may  seem  to 
exaggerate  the  effects  of  little  causes.  But  their  very  lit- 
tleness, by  enabling  them  to  touch  you  in  the  bosom  of 
your  families,  and  in  your  every-day  business,  makes  them 
the  more  irritating.  And  you  must  not  be  disappointed 
to  find  this  far  from  being  the  least  of  your  missionary 
trials. 

Fifth:  Your  wisdom  will  he  tried.  To  trace  out  even 
all  the  parts  and  bearings  of  papacy  and  the  kindred 
religions,  as  theoretical  systems  of  theology,  requires 
thought  and  discrimination.  But,  in  the  shape  which  it 
gives  to  the  minds  of  its  professors,  does  the  cunning  of 


11 

"the   master-piece   of  the   prince   of  darkness"    chiefly 
appear.     And  to   adapt  the  means  of  conviction  to  such 
minds,  calls  for   consummate  wisdom.     Without  it,  you 
may  imagine  yourselves  wielding  the  most  pungent  argu- 
ments, when  in  fact  every  one  strikes  a  spot  shielded  with 
adamant,  and  falls  pointless  to  the  ground.     For  papacy 
has  left  so  few  places  undefended,  that  they  are  not  to  be 
hit  by  a  random  shot.     They  must  be  searched  for  and 
aimed  at  before  the  wound  will  be  inflicted.     Would  you 
know  where  to  touch  the  heart  and  conscience  that  they 
may  feel?     Wise  experiment  must  teach  you  where  they 
have  not  been  hardened  and  blinded.     Would  you  give 
the  truth  a  shape  that  shall  meet  their  exigency?     You 
must  study  practically  from  observation,  as  well  as  theo- 
retically from  books,  the  highly  artificial  attitude  in  which 
their  false  religion  has  placed  them.     Your  chief  mission- 
ary business,  in  a  word,  of  conveying  truth  to  the  minds 
of  men,  will  be  a  constant  test  of  your  practical  wisdom. — 
Your  wisdom  will  be  tried,  too,  in  the  common  dealings 
of  life.     Men  are  not  brought  up  in  such  a  school  of  in- 
trigue, as  is  the  state  of  society  in  that  part  of  the  world, 
for  nothing.     A  man's  words  being  no  index  to  his  feel- 
ings or  his  intentions;  they  are  forced  to  judge  from  other 
more  unequivocal  but  less  palpable  symbols;  and  thus  they 
become  acute  discerners  of  character.     The  missionary's 
character  is  soon  studied;  and  before  he  is  aware  they 
have  fathomed  it,  and  found  what  they  can,  and  what  they 
cannot  do  with  him.     And  if,  in  the  trial,  his  common 
sense,  the  best  of  all  worldly  wisdom,  be  found  wanting, 
he  will  be  made  the  constant  butt  of  their  wily  schemes. 

Sixth:  Your  piety  will  he  tried;  in  various  respects. 
Its  activity  will  be  assayed.  With  how  many  stimulants, 
arising  from  close  contact  with  brilliant  examples,  the 


12 

thrilling  sight  and  reports  of  revivals  of  religion,  and  a 
spirit  of  restless  enterprise  and  competition  pervading  a 
whole  community,  have  you  been  goaded  on  here  from 
every  quarter  to  run  well  the  race  of  christian  zeal?  These 
extraneous  excitements  will  soon,  in  a  great  measure,  cease 
to  be  felt;  and  your  piety  will  be  thrown  upon  its  own 
internal  springs  of  action  to  move  it  onward  in  its  course 
of  labor.  Is  there  no  danger  that  it  will  be  found  defec- 
tive in  the  trial,  and  will  leave  you  to  flag,  and  stop,  and 
settle  down  into  the  apathy  and  indolence  of  the  dead 
mass  of  mind  that  will  surround  you? — Its  benevolence  will 
be  tested.  The  great  proof  of  our  Savior's  benevolence 
was  its  unmoved  endurance  of  ingratitude,  scorn  and 
injury  from  those  who  were  its  objects.  Similarly  will 
yours  be  tried.  The  missionary  goes  not  to  the  pleasant 
work  of  doing  good  to  them  who  do  good  to  him,  and 
who  deserve  his  esteem.  Men,  who  daily  cheat,  curse 
and  malign  him,  and  in  whom  he  can  detect,  perhaps, 
scarcely  one  estimable  quality,  are  the  characters  for 
whose  benefit  he  is  to  wear  out  his  life.  And  absolutely 
essential  to  his  usefulness  is  it,  that  his  love  to  their  souls 
have  strength  to  overrule  all  the  risings  of  provocation  at 
their  abuse,  and  of  contempt  at  their  meanness;  and  that, 
instead  of  sufferincr  him  to  regard  and  treat  them  with  the 
abhorrence  their  conduct  deserves,  it  inspire  him  with 
increased  compassion  at  every  new  exhibition  of  their 
turpitude.  May  your  piety,  brethren,  prove,  in  the  trial, 
to  be  of  this  heavenly  stamp;  and  though  injured,  may 
you  pity  still,  and  still  strive  to  save! — Its  very  stability 
will  be  closely  assailed.  How  many  supports  has  it  hith- 
erto had,  from  the  stated  ordinances  of  the  house  of  God, 
from  the  social  meeting  for  conference  and  prayer,  from 
the  interchange  of  experience  and  sympathies  with  Chris- 


13 

tian  friends,  from  Sabbaths  kept  so  strictly  that  all  the 
circumstances  of  their  return  carry  away  your  thouo-hts 
as  on  a  current  almost   involuntarily  to  spiritual  things, 
and  from  the  floating  opinions   and  feelings  of  a  great 
religious  community  surrounding  you  as  an  atmosphere  to 
be  constantly  inhaled  for  the  renovation  of  the  feelings 
that  circulate  in  your  heart?     All  these  props  are  about  to 
be   knocked  away,  and  your  piety  to  be  exposed  to  the 
serious  trial  of  its  ability  to  stand  stable  with  little  to  lean 
upon,  beside  the  immediate   grace  of  God.     To   many 
oppressive  weights,  also,  will  it  be  subjected.     Sabbaths 
profaned  by  labor  or  frivolous  amusement  in  those  whom 
you  see,  and  by  entire  worldliness  of  mind  in  those  with 
whom  you  converse,  will  tend  to  distract  its  spirituality. 
Constant  familiarity  with  moral  corruption,  brought  nigh 
by  the  conduct  of  those  with  whom  you  have  to  do,  and, 
by  its  very  touch,  almost  contaminating  your   heart  and 
giving  callousness  to  your  conscience,  will  tend  to  adul- 
terate its   holiness.     To  its  other  burdens,  the  prince  of 
darkness   will   add  the   weight   of  his   influence.       The 
existence  and  influence  of  Satan  is  no  Jewish  fable.     In 
his  wide  dominion,  he  has  his  more  and  his  less  loyal 
provinces.     The  missionary  goes  to  raise  the  standard  of 
revolt  where  he  reigns  lord  paramount  of  all.     And  can 
he  expect  to  encounter  no  more  than  his  ordinary  strata- 
gems and  assaults?     I  am  not  dealing  in  figures  for  the 
sake  of  impression.     I  seriously  believe  you  will  have  to 
contend  with  more  of  Satan's  wiles  in  your  own  personal 
experience,  than  if  you  remained  here,  where  his  suprem- 
acy has  been  partially  renounced.     Under  all  these  trials 
of  its  stability,  brethren,  may  your  piety  prove  not  to  be 
a  parasitic  plant,  that  shall  droop  and  fall !    But,  rooted  in 
the  soil  of  a  regenerate  heart,  and  watered  by  showers  of 


14 

divine  grace,  may  it,  like  a  stable  oak,  stand  unbent  by 
them  all ! 

Finally:  Your  faith  will  be  tried.  The  devout  Martyn, 
in  anticipation  of  the  missionary  life,  said,  "in  seasons  of 
unbelief,  nothing  seems  to  lie  before  me  but  one  vast  unin- 
teresting wilderness,  and  heaven  appearing  but  dimly  at 
the  end."  Similar  feelings  will  your  circumstances  often 
occasion  you.  When  removed  from  so  many  of  the 
present  sources  of  religious  enjoyment,  your  resort  will 
be  to  the  anticipation  by  faith  of  the  enjoyments  of 
heaven.  If  your  faith  prove  weak,  your  goal  will  be  dim, 
and  your  course  dark.  But  if  it  be  like  that  of  the 
patriarch,  who,  while  he  lived  as  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger, 
looked  for  a  city  that  hath  foundations  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God,  your  hopes  will  be  bright,  and  your  path 
as  the  shining  light  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day. — Your  work  will  add  to  the  trial  of  your  faith. 
Here  there  is  so  much  of  sight  in  the  encouragements  of 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  that  he  is  liable  to  forget  to  call 
in  the  aid  of  faith.  While  he  ploughs  and  sows,  he  sees 
the  showers  descend,  and  the  seed  spring  up  and  bear 
fruit,  with  so  much  regularity  as  to  be  tempted  to  regard 
the  process  with  feelings  differing  little  from  those  of  the 
husbandman,  when  he  looks  upon  the  progress  of»  his 
yearly  crops.  But  you  go  to  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where 
no  showers  have  descended  for  centuries;  and  as  you  clear 
away  the  rocks,  and  sow  the  seed,  not  a  little  faith  is 
required  to  expect  that  the  heavens  will  again  be  opened 
to  water  it,  and  to  make  it  bring  forth  fruit  in  its  season. 
To  look  with  confidence  to  the  means  you  will  use  for  the 
conversion  of  men,  ignorant  of  every  image  of  piety, 
brought  up  in  the  full  belief  of  ingenious  and  captivating 
error,  and  corrupted  in  conscience  and  in  heart,  till  the 


15 

one  ceases  to  recognize  the  truth  and  the  other  to  brook 
control,  is  the  height  of  faith  in  God.  Men  of  the  world 
have  it  not;  they  stand  not  this  trial  of  the  missionary, 
and  at  once  give  up  the  work  as  hopeless.  But  to  the  eye 
of  that,  which  is  "the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,"  it  is  not 
hopeless;  for  it  discerns,  applied  to  the  simple  machinery, 
the  power  of  the  Hand  that  moves  the  world.  Such,  we 
trust,  brethren,  will  your  faith  prove  to  be,  making  you 
ever  regard,  with  unshaken  confidence,  the  promise  of 
God  to  stand  as  sure  in  Asia  as  in  America.  And  while 
you  labor  in  the  regions  once  evangelized  by  Paul,  you 
will  look  as  steadfastly  as  he  did,  not  to  miracles,  nor  to 
wisdom,  but  to  the  foolishness  of  preaching  the  cross  of 
Christ,  for  the  salvation  of  them  that  believe. 

Having  added  up  so  many  items  of  the  cost,  I  ought 
now  to  estimate  also  the  value  of  the  prize.  In  other 
words,  to  this  enumeration  of  your  trials  I  ought  to  add, 
for  a  counterpoise,  a  view  of  your  pleasures  and  prospects. 
But  I  have  not  time  to  enlarge. 

Your  satisfaction  will  be  unalloyed  and  ennobling,  in 
feeling  that  you  have  thrown  yourselves  into  a  position 
perfectly  congruous  to  all  your  true  relations  to  time  and 
eternity;  by  selecting  an  employment,  that  sinks  to  their 
deserved  rank  of  trifles  the  affairs  of  the  body  and  of 
time,  by  neglecting  them;  and  exalts  to  their  proper  mag- 
nitude the  affairs  of  the  soul  and  of  eternity,  by  looking 
to  them  for  its  objects  and  its  pleasures. — Sublime  is  the 
feeling  and  glorious  the  prospect  of  enlisting  as  officers 
in  the  great  army  that  is  to  complete  what  the  Savior  bled 
on  the  cross  and  now  sits  upon  the  throne  of  the  universe 
to  accomplish,  the  subjection  of  the  whole  world  to  his 
will.  You  go  indeed  to  a  post  of  labor  and  fatigue;  and, 
as  you  besiege  the  citadels  oif  the  beast  and  of  the  false 


16 

prophet,  whose  conquest  is  to  complete  the  triumph  of  the 
Lamb,  the  struggle  may  be  hard  and  long.  But,  when 
crowned  with  the  laurels  of  victory,  how  trifling  will  all 
your  present  trials  appear  ! — Unspeakable  will  be  your 
pleasure,  leaving,  as  you  do,  this  fold  guarded  by  so  many 
faithful  shepherds,  and  going  to  gather  the  sheep  that  are 
scattered  upon  the  mountains,  when  you  succeed  in  bring- 
ing back  one  and  another  that  was  lost,  and  participate 
in  the  joy  of  the  angels  of  God  at  his  recovery. — The 
consolations  of  divine  grace,  too,  if  you  continue  faithful, 
will  be  meeted  out  to  you  according  to  your  day,  and  you 
will  find  them  neither  few  nor  small. 

And,  my  christian  friends  of  this  congregation,  may  I 
not  add,  among  other  pleasures  of  missionaries,  sympathy, 
encouragement  and  prayers  from  the  churches  at  home. 
You  surely  will  not  chill  their  hearts  by  the  ungenerous 
insinuation,  that  when  they  beg  the  means  to  be  sent 
abroad  they  are  pleading  for  personal  favors.  For  to 
whom  can  it  be  a  personal  favor,  to  be  banished  from  the 
comforts  of  home  and  the  privileges  of  our  favored  land, 
and  to  wear  out  life  in  the  midst  of  such,  and  unnumbered 
other  similar  trials?  Nor  will  you,  (may  I  not  say?)  wait 
for  them  to  write  or  come  home  to  stir  up  your  interest 
and  your  zeal  in  their  cause.  This  order  of  things  ought 
to  be  reversed.  You  are  at  the  centre,  the  heart  of  the 
system  of  evangelical  action;  missionaries  at  the  distant 
extremities.  From  you  the  current  of  life  should  be  pro- 
pelled warm  and  rapid;  from  them  it  can  be  expected  to 
return  only  at  a  cold  and  languid  rate.  You  ought  to 
take  them  by  the  hand  and  lead  them  onward,  imparting 
to  them  renewed  portions  of  your  zeal  and  faith. 

These  brethren  will  find  others  in  the  field,  who,  years 
ago,  went  out  from  you,  and  have  since  been  bearing  the 


17 

burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  Might  I  speak  of  my  own 
recollections,  I  would  tell  you  how  often  I  have  taken 
sweet  counsel  with  them.  But  you  yourselves  know  their 
worth.  Let  the  vessel,  now  about  to  leave,  go  freighted 
with  your  warmest  sympathies  and  your  sincerest  prayers 
for  them,  as  well  as  for  those  who  will  sail  in  her. 

I  need  not  add,  dear  brethren  now  about  to  depart,  an 
expression  of  my  own  fullest  sympathy  in  the  trials  and 
the  prospects  of  yourselves  and  of  them.  I  hope  soon  to 
join  you,  and,  by  spending  and  being  spent  with  you, 
share,  not  only  in  your  feelings,  but  in  your  labors. 


1 

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